Deck of Cards API

Beginner's Pick Games & Comics / No Auth Required Beginner HTTP
Free to Use
48 D
Measured Score 0 50 100 Speed 4/30 Consistency 1/20 Security 20/20 Browser access 15/15 Transparency 8/15 TESTED 2026-08-10

Overview

The Deck of Cards API lets you simulate a real deck of cards — create shuffled decks, draw cards, and manage multiple piles for different players. It's completely free with no authentication needed, making it perfect for building card game prototypes or learning how to chain multiple API calls together. The API maintains state server-side using a deck_id, so cards you draw are removed from the deck just like real cards.

Beginner Tip

Save the 'deck_id' from your first shuffle response — you'll need it for every subsequent draw or pile operation with that deck.

Measurement Record

What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.

Request
GET https://deckofcardsapi.com/api/deck/new/shuffle/?deck_count=1
Result
HTTP 200 · application/json · 79 bytes · compressed
Response time
698 ms (median of 3) · fastest 216 ms
Transport
TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Google Trust Services
Browser CORS
Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Served by
cloudflare
Recorded
2026-08-10

Fields Returned

Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.

Field Type Value received
success boolean true
deck_id string q534luum3zg9
remaining integer 52
shuffled boolean true

Captured Response

Captured from a real request to https://deckofcardsapi.com/api/deck/new/shuffle/?deck_count=1 on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.

JSON Response · Captured
{
  "success": true,
  "deck_id": "q534luum3zg9",
  "remaining": 52,
  "shuffled": true
}

Field Reference

deck_id Unique identifier for your deck — required for all subsequent draw and pile operations.
shuffled True if the deck has been shuffled at least once.
remaining Number of cards still in the deck that haven't been drawn yet.

Implementation Example

Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.

Request
const url = "https://deckofcardsapi.com/api/deck/new/shuffle/?deck_count=1";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

How This API Fails

We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.

HTTP 404 Requesting a path that does not exist text/html

Returned an HTML error page rather than JSON — worth knowing if your client assumes every response can be parsed as JSON.

HTTP 500 Sending an invalid value for "deck_count" text/html

Returned an HTML error page rather than JSON — worth knowing if your client assumes every response can be parsed as JSON.

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.

drawing 0 cards (remaining: 0) All cards have been drawn from the deck.
Call the reshuffle endpoint: https://deckofcardsapi.com/api/deck/{deck_id}/shuffle/ to reset the deck.
404 deck not found The deck_id is incorrect or the deck has expired after a period of inactivity.
Create a new deck with /api/deck/new/shuffle/ and store the returned deck_id again.
Pile not found when adding cards Pile names are case-sensitive and must be created before cards can be added.
Use a consistent lowercase pile name and ensure the add-to-pile call succeeds before trying to list or draw from it.

Measured Score Breakdown

Live HTTP request to the API endpoint

Speed 4/30
Consistency 1/20
Security 20/20
Browser access 15/15
Transparency 8/15
Endpoint Response Time 698ms

Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026

Technical Specifications

Auth No Auth
HTTPS NO
CORS UNKNOWN
Category Games & Comics
Difficulty Beginner
Endpoint last called: 2026-08-10

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